Jeremiah 3:23-24

3:23 We know our noisy worship of false gods

on the hills and mountains did not help us. ¹ 

We know that the Lord our God

is the only one who can deliver Israel. ² 

3:24 From earliest times our worship of that shameful god, Baal,

has taken away ³  all that our ancestors ⁴  worked for.

It has taken away our flocks and our herds,

and even our sons and daughters.

Jeremiah 7:2

7:2 “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s temple and proclaim ⁵  this message: ‘Listen, all you people of Judah who have passed through these gates to worship the Lord. ⁶  Hear what the Lord has to say.

Jeremiah 16:13

16:13 So I will throw you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have ever known. There you must worship other gods day and night, for I will show you no mercy.’”

Jeremiah 25:6

25:6 Do not pay allegiance to ⁷  other gods and worship and serve them. Do not make me angry by the things that you do. ⁸  Then I will not cause you any harm.’

Jeremiah 48:35

48:35 I will put an end in Moab

to those who make offerings at her places of worship. ⁹ 

I will put an end to those who sacrifice to other gods.

I, the Lord, affirm it! ¹⁰ 

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¹ tn Heb “Truly in vain from the hills the noise/commotion [and from] the mountains.” The syntax of the Hebrew sentence is very elliptical here.

² tn Heb “Truly in the Lord our God is deliverance for Israel.”

³ tn Heb “From our youth the shameful thing has eaten up…” The shameful thing is specifically identified as Baal in Jer 11:13. Compare also the shift in certain names such as Ishbaal (“man of Baal”) to Ishbosheth (“man of shame”).

⁴ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 25).

⁵ tn Heb “Proclaim there…” The adverb is unnecessary in English style.

⁶ sn That is, all those who have passed through the gates of the outer court and are standing in the courtyard of the temple.

⁷ tn Heb “follow after.” See the translator’s note on 2:5 for this idiom.

⁸ tn Heb “make me angry with the work of your hands.” The term “work of your own hands” is often interpreted as a reference to idolatry as is clearly the case in Isa 2:8; 37:19. However, the parallelism in 25:14 and the context in 32:30 show that it is more general and refers to what they have done. That is likely the meaning here as well.

⁹ tn Heb “high place[s].” For the meaning and significance of this term see the study note on 7:31.

¹⁰ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”